


Winter Wishes (Late December with my heart in my chest and the clouds of my breath)

by Emejig16



Series: Mindless Fluff [6]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Christmas Fluff, Fluff, M/M, Phanfiction, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-31 18:25:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6481837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emejig16/pseuds/Emejig16
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Christmas is without a doubt Phil’s favorite time of year, and he’s convinced there’s something purely magical about the season. His festive feelings are only amplified when a little bit of Christmas magic brings he and Dan a little closer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winter Wishes (Late December with my heart in my chest and the clouds of my breath)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Maetaurus for betaing this fic. 
> 
> The second title comes from the song "Roman Holiday" by Halsey.

The soothing aroma of hot chocolate filled the kitchen. Beneath the sound of the liquid cascading down into mugs, the soft rustle of plastic could be heard. The plop of marshmallows being dropped into the chocolate accompanied the symphony. Outside, a light snow was beginning to fall, and the soft winds could be heard from inside of the relatively quiet house. The ring of a timer, followed by the clang of pan is heard. Pure sugar and the excitement to decorate fill the room.

Christmas spirit was in full swing, and it seemed as though it had trickled into every aspect of life, kicking up thanks and something quite magical. It was without a doubt the most wonderful time of year. How could one not smile at the sight of glittering tinsel, beautiful fairy lights, and those catchy tunes you love and hate? It was the embodiment of comfort and love. That’s why this was Phil’s favorite time of year.

“Phil!” his mother called. “The cookies are ready to be decorated if you want to help.”

Despite being nearly sixteen years old, Phil always loved decorating Christmas cookies and delivering them to all of his friends and family. He couldn’t wait to one day know the secret recipe and make it for his own family. Maybe it was the tradition and the assurance of Christmas that drew him in so much; everything was set and everyone pretty much knew what to expect each year.

“Coming mum!” Phil replied from his room as he hopped off the bed. He hid the remaining gifts he needed to wrap underneath his bed, before making his way downstairs. He couldn’t help but smile as he looked at the soft yellow fairy lights and red ribbons that lined the stairs. It was just a gorgeous time of year, and so innocent; if that’s the right word he was thinking of. No matter how old he got, it felt like he was still an eager little kid, too excited to sleep with the promise of presents still electrifying his brain, and part because of all the sugar from cookies and chocolate he’d ingested.

“I’m just getting started on the different colored icings, if you’d like to help me make them,” Phil’s mum said as she mixed red food coloring with the white icing.

“Yeah I can help with that!” Phil chimed as he washed his hands before getting to work. He took it upon himself to make the green icing. He hummed along with his mum as she softly sang Christmas carols. Phil giggled as he scooped the icing into bags.

“You know Philly,” his mother mused softly, “Sometimes I forget that you and Martyn are so old now. You guys will always be my little boys who would draw on the walls.”

“Mum stop,” Phil whined as he reddened.

“I was just saying. You two have–” his mum started. She was interrupted by the doorbell chiming. “Oh, I don’t think I’m expecting anyone,” she said as she walked away to go answer the door.

Phil looked over his shoulder briefly, before going back to prepping all of the icing bags. He raised an eyebrow as he heard his mum’s laughter and her insisting to “come in and stay awhile”. Phil stopped his work and walked out of the kitchen to peer down the hallway to see who was there.

“Thank you so much for gift. Please, sit and have some tea. Oh and Dan, Phil is in the kitchen decorating cookies.” Phil overheard his mom say. He quickly peeled himself away from the wall and composed himself. Yes mum, tell his best friend that he was decorating Christmas cookies; he totally looked cool now.

“Phil sweetie, can you turn on the kettle!” his mum called. “Oh and Mrs. Howell and Dan are here.”

“Sure,” Phil responded as he turned it on. When he turned around Dan was awkwardly standing in the archway with his hands in his pockets.

“Hey,” Dan said softly, walking inside.

“How’s it going?” Phil replied with a smile.

“Alright I guess. How’s the cookie decorating going?” Dan asked, standing right next to Phil at the counter. He let his eyes drift over the colored icings, sprinkles, and different assortment of candy.

“Haven’t started yet,” Phil said, trying to hide his reddening cheeks as he reached for one of the bags of icing.

“There are a lot of cookies to get through,” Dan commented, nearly reaching for the same bag of icing.

“Do you maybe want to help me decorate?” Phil asked sheepishly.

“Uh sure,” Dan agreed with a smile.

The two of them spent the next hour decorating every last cookie. It had become this major art project that needed to have only the best designs. They made snowmen, Santas, wreaths, snowflakes, and questionable red and green patterns.

“I don’t know Phil,” Dan started, eyeing what was supposed to be a bauble design. “That kind of looks…”

“What?” Phil said holding up the cookie. “I think it looks fine?”

“I mean it kind of looks like there’s a dick right there,” Dan finally said, trying to conceal his laughter. Once Dan had said it, Phil couldn’t unsee it.

“Dan!” Phil whined, shoving Dan playfully. “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t help it,” Dan laughed.

“Fine, help me fix this.” Phil responded with an eyeroll.

Dan and Phil were having the time of their lives just messing around and making fun of one another designs. Maybe, that’s what drew Phil in so much to Dan. They could talk about nothing for hours on end, and it never felt annoying or like a waste of his time. Listening to Dan just go on about anything always made him feel warm inside.

“I’m so glad I made it through my final exams in one piece; unlike this cookie,” Phil joked.

“Oh man; I don’t want to talk about it. I just crammed every night.” Dan replied.

“Com’on Dan, you know better than to do that. Revision doesn’t suck that bad.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s just…I find it hard to focus and stuff.”

“We should have studied together, that way I could have kept you on track,” Phil said with a proud smile.

“Honestly Phil, I doubt that would have worked. You are my number one distraction,” Dan responded, immediately regretting his choice of words.

“I am not! I would be like “get back to those equations Dan!”. And then you’d be like “shit you’re right”, and it would all work out,” Phil chuckled.

“You are so distracting, you don’t even know,” Dan mumbled softly, thinking Phil didn’t hear him. The words made Phil’s tummy flutter just a bit.

Although Phil tried not to think about it all that often, maybe he did have a slightly innocent crush on Dan. Well, it wasn’t a maybe, it was a definitely but he was never sure how to feel about it or act on it. Phil wasn’t sure how to explain it either. Both were fully aware that the other was less than straight, but it was weird. Crushes were always stupid inexplainable things that made his hands go slightly sweaty, and made his brain stop working every now and then.

With Dan it wasn’t that he couldn’t be himself, he could be too much of himself and so comfortable. They’d been friends for so long and pretty much knew every last thing about one another. Sometimes he really wondered about what they could be one day.

“I think I should major in icing,” Phil joked as he traced a snowflake pattern on one of the cookies.

“Oh really? How about now?” Dan said, taking Phil’s hand and squeezing it, causing an excessive amount of icing to spill out.

“Hey!” Phil exclaimed. “Not fair,” he pouted, swiping a bit of icing onto Dan’s face.

Dan smiled and blushed a bit. “It so is; I don’t see an official rule book anywhere,” he teased, trying to get Phil back.

“Stop that,” Phil giggled, ducking away from Dan.

“Oh what? Can’t get a little icing in your hair?” Dan teased back, chasing Phil around the kitchen.

By the time they were finished, they’d made a complete mess. There was icing everywhere. There was light blue icing on the counter where they started, red on the kitchen door, green in Phil’s hair, and white all over Dan’s face. Not to mention the rainbow that covered the floor, or all of the broken pieces of candy and sprinkles that littered the floor. Cleaning up was going to suck, but neither of them really cared.

Where the light hearted fight went downhill was definitely when Dan started throwing sprinkles at Phil, and Phil started using the pan as a shield. By the end of it, they were practically jousting around the kitchen with cookie pans as their shields and bags of icing, and then candy canes as their swords.

They were in fact the biggest dorks ever, but they always had so much fun with each other being complete prats. There was no judgement or real intention to hurt one another. It was all in good spirits, and that’s what made Phil’s heart swoon.

"Holy crap. We made a huge mess.” Dan said with a mischievous giggle. “But I think I won.”

“You started it–your fault!” Phil said with a chuckle as he grabbed a few towels and sponges to clean up. “And there are no winners after this.”

“On the upside, the cookies look freakin’ awesome,” Dan said, admiring all the cookies.

“Real question is, how do they taste?” Phil questioned as he wiped some of the icing off the counter.

“Fucking amazing,” Dan said as he took a bite out of one.

“Really? I want a taste,” Phil said with a pout.

“I mean okay,” Dan said as he shoved the piece of cookie into Phil’s mouth. Phil giggled and gave Dan a thumbs up as he ate.

“Okay enough food. Help me clean up this mess,” Phil said, tossing Dan a towel.

“Fine okay,” Dan replied as he wiped the icing off of the refrigerator door. The two of them started with all the countertops and other surfaces before deciding to tackle the floor together.

“Hold on Phil,” Dan said as they crouched down on the ground. “You still have a bit of icing in your hair right here,” he mumbled as he delicately used the towel to wipe out the remaining icing.

“Thanks,” Phil said with a slight blush. He looked up at Dan’s little grin and slightly pink cheeks as he finished cleaning his hair.

“There you go. Now the floor.” Dan chuckled. As the two of them wiped the icing off the floor they couldn’t help but giggle at how ridiculous they felt doing this. It was as if they were somehow both Cinderella and being forced to clean the house.

“Mother, I want to go to the ball,” Phil proclaimed out of the silence. He got a weird look from Dan before it registered.

“No, I want to go to the ball,” Dan countered.

“I want to dance the night away and meet a gent,” Phil pressed, determined to be Cinderella.

“I want to wear a beautiful gown!” Dan said dramatically as he stood up.

“We can’t both be Cinderella, Dan.” Phil said with a giggle.

“Yeah, but I don’t want to be the mean Step Mother, or either of the ugly step sisters. Have you seen me? I’m gorgeous.” Dan joked.

Phil rolled his eyes playfully and chuckled, “You’re too much for me sometimes.”

Once the kitchen was all cleaned up, Dan and Phil weren’t sure what to do now. Both of their mothers were still deep in conversation and there wasn’t anything else his mum needed them to do. The two of them didn’t really feel like staying inside and playing video games either.

“Wanna go on a walk? To you know, look at some of the lights?“ Dan asked timidly.

"Sure that would be great,” Phil responded with a smile, feeling his heart rate start to speed up just a bit. Dan was just so lovely and his full smile was brighter than any of the lights they were going to see that evening.

“Cool,” Dan chimed. “You should probably ask your mum first…” he added with a nervous chuckle.

“You’re right, I forgot about that,” Phil said. He was pretty sure his mum was going to let them go out, whether or not he asked, but once they got the go ahead, the two of them bundled up in their coats and scarves, and left to admire the outdoors.

Dan and Phil walked close to each other as they strolled along the pavement, taking in the all of the wonderful decorations and fine powdery snow. Everything just seemed to glitter more than it typically would. It was just so enhanced and magical. For whatever reason, it made Phil want to talk, and it really made him think.

Even with the beautiful sights around him, Phil couldn’t keep his eyes off of Dan. He was hopelessly head over heels for someone who probably just thought of him as great friend. Maybe confessing his crush he had on him wasn’t a good idea. What if Dan rejected him so hard and didn’t even attempt to let him down easy? Was that a situation he really wanted to be in during such a joyous time of year?

Along their route, Phil skidded on ice but just as he was about to fall, Dan wrapped his arm around his waist to steady him. The brush of Dan’s fingers on his exposed skin felt like a thousand needles pricking his skin.

“Uhm thanks,” Phil said, blushing profusely.

“No problem, are you alright?” Dan asked sweetly. Phil could’ve sworn he could see a faint blush on Dan’s cheeks.

“Yeah I’m fine,” Phil replied with a shy smile.

“Okay good. It would suck if you slipped and got a concussion two days before Christmas,” Dan said with a chuckle.

“Oh definitely.” Phil said, giggling himself.

The two of them continued to walk around, pointing out all of the things they liked, while making light hearted jokes about the other sights and color schemes.

Phil couldn’t help but smile when he felt Dan grab his hand, pulling him towards the one house that always made ice sculptures right before Christmas. There were angels, elaborate snowflakes and even a gingerbread house, but even as they admired the crafts his brain was still turning on how he was going to tell Dan he liked him or if he should even bother.

“How can someone be this talented?” Dan mused with a chuckle. “This is incredible.”

“I mean just ask yourself? You’re so talented when it comes to playing the piano,” Phil responded, nudging Dan a bit.

Dan blushed, “I’m not that good.”

“Shut up, yes you are!” Phil retorted, squeezing Dan’s hand a bit. He couldn’t believe he had held Dan’s hand for this long. He thought that Dan would have let go right after they finished looking at the house with ice sculptures, but he never did.

The two of them ended up spending a lot more time outside than they had intended and before they knew it their noses were cold and their fingers were starting to numb.

“Holy shit, I think my fingers are going to fall off,” Dan joked.

“How about we head back to my house get some hot chocolate?” Phil proposed, his hand still linked with Dan’s. He was trying to ignore how fast his heart was beating; he could barely believe that he’d been holding Dan’s hand for this long, and Dan didn’t seem to mind at all.

“You’re so smart,” Dan replied.

It was starting to get late and Phil knew that they were going to be in front of his house any minute now. He needed to get over himself and just tell Dan. He knew that if he didn’t he’d wait at least another four months, when they’d be hanging out together during break, but he didn’t want to do that to himself. And what if it was too late by then? Dan was such an amazing guy; no one would be dumb enough to let their chance with him slip through their fingers.

Just as Phil had psyched himself up to tell Dan, Dan stopped walking and sighed.

“Phil can I tell you something?” Dan asked quietly as he stopped just in front of Phil’s house.

“I’m all ears,” Phil replied, unsure of where this was going.

Dan chucked to himself, “I just wanted to say I really enjoyed this evening. Like a lot, I mean I really love spending time with you. Even when we’re doing dumb things like making cookies.”

Phil blushed. “Uh…thanks,” he replied, at a loss for words.

“We’ve been friends for so long and I don’t think I could’ve found a better person to share all of these years with and I just need you to know that you mean a lot to me,” Dan said, squeezing Phil’s hand.

“You mean a lot to me too Dan. I’m glad we’re friends–I mean I like you a lot.” Phil said back.

“I like you a lot too. Like, a lot a lot,” Dan confessed, looking at his shoes.

“Wait, like, “like like” me?” Phil asked in complete shock. Did those words just come out of Dan’s mouth? There was no way Dan was beating him to the one thing he wanted to do most, not that he was complaining. He just couldn’t believe that Dan actually felt the same way. He had spent so much time convincing himself that Dan did not feel any sort of attraction to him and only liked him as a friend, yet here he was holding his hand and telling him that he meant a lot to him. When Dan nodded with a lopsided grin, Phil thought he was going to pass out.

Phil let go of Dan’s hand and placed it over his mouth, “I don’t know what to say.”

“I know. I understand if you don’t feel the sa–” Dan started.

“No, I definitely feel the same way. I just can’t believe it,” Phil gushed.

“But you don’t necessarily know what to think right?” Dan asked, jumping to conclusions as he visibly winced. “Listen I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about it and I don’t even know what to think.”

“Oh my god no. No, no no Dan. I know exactly what to think, I’m just slightly overwhelmed,” Phil rambled. “You’re not lying right?”

“You tell me if this seems like I’m lying.” Dan commented. He leaned in slowly, and Phil could feel his face coming closer, the warm air of his breath hitting his neck. His amazing scent intoxicating his senses. Phil closed his eyes and anticipated the sensational impact of Dan’s lips against his. He braced himself and he was not even mere inch from his face. Phil stood on his toes a bit, to reach Dan’s lips and close the gap for them.

It didn’t cause fireworks to go off in his heart and it didn’t feel like time was stopping or something stupidly romantic like that, but kissing him felt right; it felt like he was coming home after a long trip he didn’t know he was on. Phil opened his eyes to Dan’s glossy eyes and slightly flushed face looking right back at him. He let his nose brush up against Dan’s before letting out a sheepish giggle.

“You’re such a dork,” Phil murmured back to Dan.

“But I’m your favorite,” Dan mumbled back with a chuckle.

“You have no idea how long I have wanted to do that,” Phil said before giving Dan another kiss on the cheek. “I just, I never knew what to expect,” he confessed awkwardly.

He watched as a big grin appeared on Dan’s face and felt himself melt just a little more. “Merry Christmas Phil,” Dan said as he leaned down to give Phil another kiss.


End file.
